The Blue Angels: Seattle is “unparalleled”

You may recgonize them from their roaring engines, but there’s a man inside every Blue Angels jet.

Maj. Nathan Miller never expected to perform dangerous stunts at Mach 1 speeds in front of thousands of spectators for a living. He was raised as a blue-collar boy in Flint, Mich. His family worked in the auto industry, and everyone he grew up with was expected to do the same. But Miller was accepted into the Air Force Academy, and then joined the Marines.

Just over two years ago, he put on the royal blue suit and joined the extremely competitive Blue Angels squadron. The Angels are chosen and admitted by fellow crew members, and everyone is part of the team for three years before going back to their position in the military. The pilots hone every detail and maneuver by training two to three times a day, six times a week, from November until the shows start again in March.

On Miller’s last year with the team, we talked about the dangers of his job, what he thinks about while performing, and why Seattle is special.

What do you want people watching you to come away with?

The thing that we’d like to do is to motivate and inspire. Of course, our mission is to recruit and represent the services that have served prior and are still currently serving, but I think that, overall, being proud to be an American, and motivating and inspiring people maybe to come in the military if they’d like to do that, or to pursue their dream. For little kids, whatever their dream is, they can achieve that dream, and for the rest of the folks that have already established themselves and are living their lives, hopefully that motivates them and makes them prideful and patriotic to be an American.

What’s different about flying over Seattle and doing Seafair as opposed to other air shows?

There are a few things that are different with Seattle. First and foremost, the reception we get here is unparalleled and pretty awesome. This is the 60th anniversary of Seafair and we’ve been here since ’72. Of course, that immediately gets us excited to come here, and just getting here and getting the general feel of the town. Flying over the city is pretty cool as well, when you’ve got the development of the city as you’re flying right around, over the Needle and downtown area and of course over Lake Washington. One thing that’s different from what we normally do is that the airfield here at Boeing Field is actually inside a five-mile ring. The ring, we call a temporary flight restriction that we’re inside of and have to remain inside of to avoid conflict with other aircraft. So that’s a little unique in that we bring it over the water and it’s just overall a pretty view. It’s a natural amphitheater out there on Lake Washington, and from all views there’s not a bad seat in the house.

Before you get comfortable with the speed and the rate at which we fly towards each other and when we rendezvous and things, I think that’s not necessarily unnerving but it takes a while to get adjusted to. We have a lot of flight practice before coming to the team, so we know how close we’re flying and we get somewhat close together, but when you get to know each other, it takes a while before that seems normal, so that’s the initial training.

You’re all flying physically close together. Because you endure such dangerous circumstances, do the pilots and crew grow closer?

Oh yeah, absolutely. The whole team is very tight. There’s about 145 total people, about 130 personnel and 16 officers, so the overall corps of people we have here is about half the size of a fleet squadron. That’s part of the assessment when you look if you want them to come on the team. They can have the qualifications, they can be a good pilot, but they have to fit in dynamically with the personalities on the team, and of course handle the social settings. But that is huge, you have to have that bond that exists. The pilots, yes, specifically, but everyone trusts each other so much with what they’re doing. You hear those things, the camaraderie, all those things you hear about in the military. But here in the Blue Angels, we really try to personify that and it has to happen because we’re on the road nearly 300 days a year with each other, so the personalities gotta click pretty well.

What’s going through your mind when you’re flying and performing these dangerous stunts?

We fly the plane based on what’s happening around us. Sometimes environmentals can change but fortunately the weather will be good and the winds won’t be too bad around here. When we come in, everything is rehearsed and repeated and trained and trained so much that I don’t want to necessarily say it’s second nature, because you don’t ever want to be complacent — comfortable, yes, but not complacent. You’re always on top of what’s happening next and what you’re taking care of right now. You want to be as we call, “ahead of the jet.” You don’t want to be surprised at the next event.

How often do you worry about forgetting the little things, like releasing the color into the air?

Smoke is what you’re referring to. There’s certain procedures where your smoke has to be on. If the smoke isn’t coming out of your plane, then people will ask what’s wrong with that plane. Some folks don’t know, but internally you do know, so you try to do the best you can in your maneuver, and to turn it on or turn it off at the right time, ’cause otherwise it would be a little bit embarrassing if your smoke’s the only one that’s not on. There’s definitely little things that like that that we take pride in and make the show nice and smooth and aesthetically pleasing and according to the standards which we try to uphold.

What’s the most dangerous part of the whole show?

I don’t know if there’s a particular maneuver. I think that just overall, as a solo pilot there’s plenty of times where we’re flying at each other, and over the water it makes it difficult sometimes because you have to get your lines established so you’re in accordance with FAA regulations and all that stuff. So at first it takes a little bit to get accustomed to making that straight line, and when we oppose each other so much, not to be too close, but close enough that your comfort level allows that you can make the maneuver look like it’s supposed to look. That’s why we practice and go out before we put on full shows on the weekend. So I’d say the most dangerous thing is initially just getting the lay of the land and doing the maneuvers as a solo pilot and just making sure the checkpoints are right so we can come in opposing each other at very high speeds and do it safely.

You can see the Blue Angels fly over Lake Washington this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.